Comments on: Latest newspaper and magazine numbers

By: stephen

stephen — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 05:13:53 +0000

Was hardly my wish Ian, but noted.

By: emmess

emmess — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 22:23:28 +0000

I stopped buying the Herald a few years ago because of their far left world section particularly the Robert Fisk columns
But even though they are more centerist now, the fact is I will probably never buy any newspaper again.
What is the point when it all free online or at work?

By: dudeabides

dudeabides — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 21:47:31 +0000

Yes, Murray, but who cares why you — or any one person — stopped buying something? I stopped buying the SST because I got sick of the Bridget Saunders pages. You stopped because you think Cate Brett is a card-carrying socialist. But the subject of the post is broad trends behind circulation and readership.

By: Ian Wishart

Ian Wishart — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 21:45:10 +0000

Stephen…your wish has been granted…

http://www.investigatemagazine.com/tgif15aug08.pdf

Which is the second issue of TGIF that subscribers received last Friday night…

By: Murray

Murray — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 21:39:45 +0000

In all seriousness I know why I stopped buying something and it was politics.

Other peoples reasons are theirs not mine to claim.

Thats what makes me a conservative. I don’t asume to speak for others.

By: dudeabides

dudeabides — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 21:25:58 +0000

In all seriousness, the fall in the SST’s circulation has nothing to do with left and right politics. It’s because it finally had some serious competition when APN launched the Herald on Sunday. Before that, Fairfax had the field to itself, with SST for the broadsheet reader and Sunday News as the tabloid. Considering that a new player has entered the market, with a circ of around 90,000, it’s actually remarkable how well the SST figures have held up.

And readership is hardly an inexact science. Ask yourself how a magazine or paper (eg the Listener or the NBR) could possibly sell less and yet be read more? It’s do with calculating pass-on rates in market research, but how exact this could be? Paid circulation is the number to look at.

There is one deserved increase, in my view. North and South had a fantastic redesign under Metro designer Jenny Nichols and lost its carping, right-wing-soccer-mom tone when Robyn Langwell was removed. It’s a much better, broader read now.

By: Murray

Murray — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 20:55:44 +0000

There’s that excrement argument again. Could be a theme.

By: expat

expat — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 20:30:37 +0000

The numbers reflect the reality Russell, irrespective of your suspicions.

Perhaps the falling publications are shit?

By: Murray

Murray — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 20:24:48 +0000

They wont be getting another cent from em till they dump that labour party mouthpiece and stalanist hack trotter serge.

By: Ian Wishart

Ian Wishart — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 10:21:36 +0000

Ah Stephen, happy to help, that’ll be TGIF Edition’s second issue, now live online four days after subscribers first got it..

http://www.investigatemagazine.com/tgif15aug08.pdf

By: Ian Wishart

Ian Wishart — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 09:55:47 +0000

Stephen, that would be the second issue of TGIF Edition, which has now gone live for non-subscribers four days after release to subscribers…

You can read it here: http://www.investigatemagazine.com/tgif15aug08.pdf

By: Ian Wishart

Ian Wishart — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 09:48:18 +0000

You can get it right here, Stephen…

http://www.investigatemagaine.com/tgif15aug08.pdf

By: stephen

stephen — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 08:27:21 +0000

Journalism online that isn’t in the papers? Where?

By: serge

serge — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 08:18:06 +0000

So pleased to see the Dominion Post figures on the decrease, hopefully the trend will continue until it dissapears from the radar altogether. Its contents are utter rubbish by and large, just as well we have access to excellent journalistic content on line.

By: Murray

Murray — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 02:51:36 +0000

Spin wussle spin.

By: peterwn

peterwn — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 02:45:46 +0000

Circulation is presumably paid circulation. For Dom Post there are give away copies at Vic Uni and airline departure gates (not sure about the most recent policy on this). Not to mention random copies delivered to households. Seems like a strategic ‘splits’ between a ‘paid’ newspaper and a giveaway newspaper, the former for revenue and the latter to boost readership from those who won’t buy (or have to leave for the airport before it is delivered).

By: Russell Brown

Russell Brown — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 02:26:02 +0000

The readership figures for a magazine like Investigate essentially relate to Wishart’s personal prominence in the headlines — it’s a measure of masthead recognition. Investigate’s print run is about 12,000 and at a guess it’d sell 10,000 of those, which puts it in the range of Metro.

OTOH, the most recent readership figures look a bit whiffy all round to me — I can’t think of a reason why Metro, to take one example, would show a jump in audience while its circulation continues to trail off.

The way the weekend newspaper market absorbed the Herald on Sunday is quite remarkable — most (but not all) of its sales have been new sales.

I strongly doubt that its recent performance is down to some perceived political stance, though — oddly enough, people generally don’t care about that. It’s doing well because it has some feisty (sometimes overly so) reporters on staff and has broken stories. And frankly, it’s not exactly going gangbusters on circulation anyway — it’s stable in the low 90k range; actually less than it had when there were promotions running in its launch year.

By: stephen

stephen — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 02:17:05 +0000

Eh? I don’t get your point about Murdoch PhilBest…Why is one guy owning left and right wing media something that is especially desirable?

By: PhilBest

PhilBest — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 01:20:37 +0000

Yep, NZ is ripe for the “Fox News” phenomenon; there are huge gaps in the market for the likes of Ian Wishart to fill. I wish “TGIF” all the best. It’s just a pity that NZ is so small that we don’t get the phenomenon of media owners like Murdoch running both Leftwing AND Rightwing media so as to maximise his market penetration………

By: Fairfacts Media

Fairfacts Media — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 01:06:35 +0000

Indeed the Sunday Star-Times must be increasingly out of step with its readers, which is why it is losing so many, unless it is just lefties left buying the publication.
The slump under the Brett era (post 2003) is quite remarkable and cannot all be slated at the 2004 arrival of Herald on Sunday.
Her editorship and the SST’s leftist slant must be costing Fairfax millions.
I posted twice on the issue over at No Minister over the weekend.
The contrast with the Herald on Sunday should reinforce the message.